In Which Patti Scialfa Builds Up
From a Very Stable Bottom of Emotion

Q. I’m fascinated with the process of songwriting. Some elements, which might be recognizable as probably you, about, say, your husband — “You’re part of me forever like a troublesome tattoo” — come together with elements that aren’t you. And, you know, sort of, how you work that out? I mean, do you cast your mind onto an idea that there’s a sadness to something that really doesn’t have a sadness?

A. Well sadness is wonderful and it’s a field that’s just so ripe that you can always go in and find something in there [laughs]. So I like to start with something that just feels very — that I feel very close to and very emotionally true about. And as long as I have that — as a core inspiration — then you can add your fiction on top of it. But, for me, it has to have a very stable bottom of emotion — of something that really did happen to you.

Patti Scialfa, interviewed by Renee Montagne, NPR’s “Morning Edition,” July 28, 2004